A handheld machine tool of this type is known from the related art, which has a drive motor situated in a tool housing for driving a drive element, e.g. a drive spindle, equipped with a spindle-locking device. The spindle-locking device has two or more spindle cylinders, which are able to be clamped between associated clamping surfaces of the drive spindle and a blocking element, developed e.g. in the manner of a clamping ring, when the handheld machine tool is in spindle-lock operation, or when the drive motor is switched off, in order to prevent the drive spindle from rotating relative to the tool housing. This allows for the drill chuck to be tightened and released using only one hand, especially in the case of single-sleeved quick-action round shaft drill chucks.
The related art has the disadvantage that spindle-locking devices of this type display nonuniform response behavior in different handheld machine tools, it being possible for a respective torsion angle of the drive spindle when triggering a corresponding spindle-lock operation to be between 6° and more than 360° , depending on a respective machine position and a time duration of a corresponding braking process of the drive spindle prior to triggering the spindle-lock operation. In addition, spindle-lock devices of this type may display a so-called “rattling tendency” due to a great moment of inertia of the respective drive spindle, particularly when using comparatively heavy tool inserts, it being possible for the spindle-locking devices to enter at least briefly into an intermittent spindle-lock operation in particular when the drive spindle is running down. This may result in an undesired noise generation.